The Human Rights situation of the Yezidi minority - UNHCR

stark threat to the continuation of their way of life as a transhumant community. Behind
government officials’ claims that Yezidis have not submitted applications for land sales in a
correct or timely fashion lies a more complex reality of an impoverished community
disengaged from the mainstream of Armenian politics. Privatization is an inevitable corollary
of the shift to capitalism, but in an ethnically diverse environment of groups differentiated in
their capacity to take advantage of new property rights, it can take on an ethnic colouring.
Furthermore, in the context of Armenia’s Yezidi minority privatization and land reform are
inseparable from community survival.
While the Armenian authorities may abide broadly by the letter of the law in managing the
privatization process, they have not taken into consideration the special needs of Yezidis as a
community far removed from positions of power, wealth or influence. One example is that
while technically the authorities did give due notice of land auction sales by printing
announcements in newspapers, newspapers are not widely read by Yezidis. To this one must
add that business in Armenia, as in other post-Soviet states, is not conducted in a transparent
form allowing for free competition, but through mechanisms of “clans” and informal
networks. 72 These informal types of association are impenetrable to outsiders, including
ethnic minorities, who must compete with their own informal networks. As a relatively small
minority Yezidis have been particularly poorly placed to offer this kind of competition.
Approaching the issue via the strict letter of the law, while ignoring the reality that even
members of the Armenian majority rely on informal networks to get things done, results in
the disenfranchisement of minorities unable to compete in kind.
Under such conditions Yezidis have not been able to exercise their economic, social and
cultural rights. As a State Party to the ICESCR, Armenia must ensure the “progressive
realization” of economic, social and cultural rights (including the rights to adequate housing,
water, sanitation and the highest attainable standard of health) “according to the maximum of
[its] available resources” (Article 2(1)). It is incumbent upon the Armenian authorities to
exercise special care to ensure the consultation and participation of Yezidis who constitute
one of the most vulnerable categories of the population. Arguably, while claims that Yezidis
are systematically discriminated against may be over-stated, the Armenian authorities have
failed to exercise sufficient diligence in ensuring equality of access for this disadvantaged
community.
In the civil and political sphere there does not appear to be an overall pattern of systematic
discrimination against Yezidis. Yezidis may, resources allowing, freely produce their own
cultural associations, media and community events. However, there are consistent reports of
discrimination against them in specific social domains, above all the classroom, the Army,
and the conduct of law enforcement agencies which ignore or dismiss alleged crimes against
Yezidis. There is a counter-argument suggesting that members of the Armenian majority are
also subject to economic isolation or rights violations by key state agencies, such as the
police. This is certainly true, yet in the context of a marginalized ethnic minority these
syndromes are particularly serious since they further entrench marginalization and social
exclusion. This situation has left Yezidis, as a minority without alternative sources of
protection, such as a kin-state, an organized diaspora or influential community
representatives, especially vulnerable and defenceless.
72 Khachatryan, Defining Uncertain Rights, p. 12
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